10/12/11 - Oklahoma City NM

The Oklahoma City National Memorial was a hard one to visit; it’ll probably be hard to write about too.  My cousin Emilee who lives in nearby Norman said they’ve never gone.

Although the memorial was established as a unit of the National Park Service in 1997, it was de-authorized by Congress in 2004.  It’s now an affiliate of the National Park System, and is operated by a private foundation.  Park Rangers outside; foundation employees inside. Who knew?

Where the Federal Building stood is an Outdoor Symbolic Memorial.  You walk through the Gates of Time, past the Field of Empty Chairs, Reflecting Pool and Survivor Wall.  

The Memorial Museum is in a building that was across the street from the Murrah Building.  Inside is what they call “an interactive learning experience”, which takes you through a chronological tour of that day in April, 1995.  It’s very well done, but highly emotional. 

It starts with a history of terrorism, then a history of the site.  You then go into a room and sit down.  There was a water resources hearing taking place in that room, and you listen to the beginnings of the meeting.  Two minutes later, you hear the explosion on the recording.  The doors at the end of room open, and you walk into chaos.  There are TV newscasts going on.

You go from exhibit to exhibit, sometimes reading the information or displays, sometimes fighting back tears. 

I started skipping sections.  I couldn't go into the Gallery of Honor at all.

At one point, George looked out the window but couldn’t see our truck.  There had been some “No Parking” signs nearby, but they were turned sideways.  I told him I’d go down with him to check.  An hour was enough.

We’d both had enough raw emotion for the day. 

Click the link for more pictures.  Oklahoma City NM

10/4/11 - Hot Springs NP

Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas says they're the first national park--although I understand the folks at Yellowstone feel the honor is theirs.  Hot Springs began in 1832 as a reservation to protect a natural resource (the springs), but didn't get the NP designation until 1921; Yellowstone became a NP in 1872. 

I thought Hot Springs was in the Ozarks--but I was wrong.  It's in the Zig Zag Mountains (don’t all mountains zig-zag?) on the eastern edge of the Ouachitas.  I'd been there as a kid, and I remembered the fall colors, the twisty roads and the scary-tall metal observation tower. 

It's been a very dry year, so scratch the fall colors.  Leaves just dropped off the trees, or turned brown.  The only red leaves were poison ivy. 

The roads are still twisty.  The old erector-set tower is gone, and the new one is even taller.  We rode the elevator up, and walked down.  The next day I remembered I hadn't used that particular set of muscles in a while.

                          

We stayed at Gulpha Gorge campground--which I kept calling Gorpha Gulch.  Either way it's a great name.  It's 5 miles to town if you drive, or 1.4 miles if you hike.  And it's a hike--not a walk!  Some of it's pretty steep, and we're waaaaay out of practice.  A couple of days George opted to stay at the RV, and I hiked by myself--in spite of my singular lack of navigational expertise. 

The Dead Chief Trail leads to town; the Goat Rock trail leads to (guess what!) Goat Rock.  I do wish they marked the trails a little bit better…I'm sure it wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t run out of string.  

The springs are definitely hot--143⁰ hot!  By the 1920s the springs were a destination for vacations and health seekers.  They built big fancy bathhouses along Bathhouse Row (cute), and really pampered their customers.  Most of the bathhouses closed down during the '60s because water therapy wasn’t quite as popular as it was in the past.  (Plus they'd invented penicillin--see below.)

The park service not only owns the springs and the woods, but also the section of downtown Hot Springs where Bathhouse Row is.  They have a directive to maintain the park resources, and that includes the bathhouses.  The Fordyce Bathhouse was restored and is now the Visitors Center. 

The tour guide explains how it was during the "Golden Age of Bathing".  They had some really funky ideas about health treatments 100 years ago--like mercury sitz baths to treat STDs.  (The guide said that’s what actually caused Al Capone’s death.)  And they did it all with grandeur!

        

    

The Quapaw Bathhouse is once again a spa.  A couple of other old ones are being renovated, and then the park service will lease them out to entrepreneurs.  (If you're interested, contact a park ranger.  You can use me as a reference.)

 Click link to find more pictures of Hot Springs.  Hot Springs NP 

10/1/11 - George Washington Carver NM

We stopped to visit some of my relatives in Seneca, MO, and set up the RV on the parking lot of the nearby casino.  (Yeah, I know--not a lot of ambiance, but it only cost $3/night!) 

It was a quick drive to the George Washington Carver National Monument, where GWC was born.

There’s a short trail around the farm.  You walk past the site of the cabin where he was born.  Site being the critical word, I didn’t register that the low log wall had any significance.  I figured it out later; you can see it in this picture.  I was busy reading the monument plaque.

There’s a statue of Boy Carver perched on a rock.

The Carver homestead is still standing.  You can go inside, but there's not much there--couple of rockers.

George & I disagreed on what he’d invented—we learned at the "Discovery Center" it was peanuts, not cotton!  (We knew it was one of those crops they grow in the south.  If it had been tobacco, the monument would have been bigger.)

 

At Tuscagee Institute in Alabama, he did research on peanuts, coming up with more than 300 different things they can be used for!  (I knew two:  peanut butter sandwiches and peanut butter cookies...oh, yeah, and Phad Thai.  Who would have guessed ink or linoleum???)

He was a great humanitarian and went on educational speaking tours all over the country, speaking from this little wagon!  (And no, I don't know why it's called "Jesup Agricultural Wagon"--I must have skipped that sign.) 

By the way, this isn't a peanut plant--it's a sunflower along the trail we walked.  I wouldn't recognize a peanut plant unless Mr. Peanut himself pointed it out to me.  I think it's pretty though, don't you?

Link to more pictures.  Be sure to check out the butterfly. Geo Washington Carver NM pictures